Fans lined up roughly single file along Santa Monica Boulevard and up North Doheny Drive in West Hollywood, CA. The Troubadour had seen plenty like it before for the likes of Buffalo Springfield, Elton John, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, to name a handful. Yet, how many of those crowds had queued around the block by 8 p.m. on a Friday night?
There was a good reason for that on the first Friday of February, two good reasons, really, as neither end of the double bill featuring Goose and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong was to be missed. For the better part of five hours (with two breaks), these two East Coast collectives delighted folks at Doug Weston’s legendary 500-capacity nightclub with jams spanning from serious to silly, to seriously silly.
Goose began the evening by giving Southern California a gander at their style of psychedelic jazz-fusion. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based quartet treated the audience to a terrific display of talent and instrumentation while traversing their small-but-growing repertoire. They pulled songs freely from their debut album–2016’s Moon Cabin–with captivating tracks like “Arcadia” and “Lead the Way” along with newer tunes like 2019’s “All I Need”, “Time to Flee”, and “Wysteria Lane”, along with the recently added “Hot Tea”. Goose also managed to capture the attention of fans young and old with covers of Marvin Gaye’s “Don’t You Do It” and Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out.”
Related: Brooklyn Comes Alive Reveals Artists, Unique Collabs, Tribute Sets For 2020 Event
All the while, Goose showed why fans have been flocking to their shows in sellout numbers by melting faces of all ages. With the aptly named Trevor Bass on bass and Ben Atkind on drums, guitarist Rick Mitarotonda served spectacularly as the band’s face, main voice, and axeman while Peter Anspach provided the core spirit in addition to his vocals and perfunctory performance on keys and guitar.
Goose would’ve been a tough act for just about any band to follow, even one that’s been around as long as has Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. The Baltimore-based quartet has been playing together since 2009 and recorded five self-released albums in that time, with the latest being 2020’s Presto.
To their credit, this goofy group didn’t try to be anywhere near as serious as Goose had been during their opening set, at least, not initially. Pigeons’ first set featured a mix of fun and tight funk songs, from “Porcupine” and “Henrietta” to “Sail On”, “The Liquid”, and “Julia.” The band even mixed in a particularly crunchy cover of the Chili Peppers’ “All Around the World” spiced up with a ripping jam. Song after song, lead vocalist/guitarist Greg Ormont scrambled around the stage, whipping his wild hair and even wilder eyes while waxing poetic about “Water”.
“We do this for fun,” Ormont gleefully told the crowd before leading his bandmates into an encore of “Ocean Flow”.
It was abundantly clear after a second set in which Ormont, guitarist Jeremy Schon, bassist Ben Carrey, and drummer Alex “Gator” Petropulos (clad in a No. 33 Lower Merion Kobe Bryant jersey) soared past the “Horizon” with jazz-infused instrumentation that was nothing short of spellbinding. Songs like “Sunny Day” propagated the power of the group’s positivity, while also blending covers of Lipps Inc’s “Funkytown” and the Commodores’ “Brick House” which both ensured a proper balance between noise and funk on this night.
With another sellout at the Los Angeles venue set for Saturday, Goose and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong will be sure to have many more birds of a feather flocking outside the Troubadour over Oscars weekend. With more performances like this which the two bands delivered on Friday, more dedicated formations of fans are sure to follow the talented avian acts from town to town and venue to venue along a winter-into-spring tour that’s slated to fly into July.
Scroll down to check out a mix of fan-shot videos from Friday’s show.
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Setlist: Pigeons Playing Ping Pong | The Troubadour | West Hollywood, CA | 2/7/20
Set One: Whoopie, Porcupine, Henrietta> Around The World, Sail On, The Liquid, Water, Julia
Set Two: Penguins> Funkijam> Upfunk> Drums> Upfunk, Horizon> Offshoot, Landing> Funky House*, Sunny Day
Encore: Ocean Flows
Notes:
* “Funkytown” + “Brick House” covers mashup
On March 21st at Brooklyn Comes Alive at Brooklyn, NY’s Avant Gardner, members of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and Goose will join forces for a special, collaborative set billed as Birds of a Feather for the first time ever.
Birds of a Feather will feature Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda, Peter Anspach, and Trevor Weekz alongside PPPP’s Jeremy Schon and Alex “Gator” Petropulos.
Other exciting artists and collaborations set to take the stage at Brooklyn Comes Alive include Oteil Burbridge & Friends with Jeff Chimenti, Eric Krasno, Jason Crosby, Scott Metzger, John Kimock, Alfreda Gerald, Lamar Williams Jr., Weedie Braimah, Eric “Benny” Bloom, Ryan Zoidis, and Tom Guarana; Turkuaz with special guests Cory Henry, Robert Sput Searight, and Nate Werth; The Motet with Shira Elias, Nate Werth, and Brandon “Taz” Niederauer; and more. Check out the full lineup below.
GA and VIP tickets are now available via the Brooklyn Comes Alive website.
